Socially Responsible Art

Our Founding Feathers

January 19, 2010

I have taken quite a bit of pride in being a company that is conscientious on many levels. I use as little as possible and reuse everything from wallpaper and newspaper to wrap purchased and make business cards to using Eco-fi felt as the base for most of my creations. (Eco-fi felt is made from 100% recycled plastic bottles.) It occurred to me last fall that I had no idea where my feathers were coming from so I called the headquarters of Zucker feathers and inquired where their feathers came from. I then learned that most feather companies work in cahoots with the meat industry:

I began researching and found a company that was better about telling me where my feathers came from and how thew are obtained. This lead me to Ostrich.com which has in their mission statement: To educate the world to the phenomenal benefits of ethically farming ostriches in order to produce luxurious ostrich leather and heart-healthy ostrich meat together with the unequaled by-products of this unique animal.

Now some may believe eating the bird is not ethical, which is why I wanted to know everything about every feather product I sell, so my customers can choose wisely based on their ethics. One bit of info to keep in mind is that approximately two to four billion pounds of poultry feathers are produced every year by the poultry industry, (consider these are feathers… That is a lot!) and like other forms of keratin, these are slow to decompose. Also, another thing that attracted me to Ostrich was that the feathers they sell are collected while the bird is alive, through the natural molting process!

To learn more about what I use to make my pieces, check out my catalog.